CANCELLED: NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester / Alan Gilbert

The new festival »Elbphilharmonie Visions« aims to provide a snapshot of today’s music world, as Alan Gilbert puts it. The chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra was responsible for initiating the festival, and it goes without saying that he conducts the opening concert. On the programme are recent successful pieces by two old hands of the contemporary music scene: Olga Neuwirth, to whom the Elbphilharmonie already dedicated a major spotlight in the 2018/19 season, and Helmut Lachenmann.

The press described Olga Neuwirth’s composition »Masaot« as an »overcharged funfair of illusions and allusions«. The Austrian composer wrote it as a homage to her grandfather’s childhood by the Danube. The finished work is a kind of Gustav Mahler for the 21st century, a gripping pièce de résistance brimming with broken traditions.
Expectations of something similarly personal are aroused by the title of Helmut Lachenmann’s latest orchestral piece. »My Melodies – Music for Eight Horns and Orchestra«. Can we look forward to romantic French horn music and nostalgic songs? Has the self-appointed enfant terrible calmed down? No way! There is no point in looking for conventional »lovely sounds« in Lachenmann’s music. Instead, completely new horizons open up: scraps of melodies, noises and solos from the group of horns combine to create harmonies of unexpectedly intense colour.